UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549 

 

WHEELER REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST, INC.

(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

N/A

(Former Name, Former Address and Former Fiscal Year, if Changed Since Last Report)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

As of NovemberMay 7, 2017,2018, there were 8,730,8599,056,723 common shares, $0.01 par value per share, outstanding.

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

1. Organization and Basis of Presentation and Consolidation

Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. (the "Trust", the "REIT", or "Company") is a Maryland corporation formed on June 23, 2011. The Trust serves as the general partner of Wheeler REIT, L.P. (the “Operating Partnership”), which was formed as a Virginia limited partnership on April 5, 2012. As of September 30, 2017,March 31, 2018, the Trust, through the Operating Partnership, owned and operated sixty-foursixty-five centers, one office building, seven undeveloped properties, and one redevelopment project in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Accordingly, the use of the word “Company” refers to the Trust and its consolidated subsidiaries, except where the context otherwise requires.

On October 24, 2014, the Trust, through the Operating Partnership, acquired (i) Wheeler Interests, LLC (“WI”), an acquisition and asset management firm, (ii) Wheeler Real Estate, LLC (“WRE”), a real estate leasing, management and administration firm and (iii) WHLR Management, LLC (“WM” and collectively with WI and WRE the “Operating Companies”), a real estate business operations firm, from Jon S. Wheeler, the Company's then Chairman and CEO, resulting in the Company becoming an internally-managed REIT. Accordingly, the responsibility for identifying targeted real estate investments, the handling of the disposition of real estate investments our boardBoard of directorsDirectors chooses to sell, administering our day-to-day business operations, including but not limited to, leasing, property management, payroll and accounting functions, acquisitions, asset management and administration are now handled internally.

Prior to being acquired by the Company, the Operating Companies served as the external manager for the Company and its properties (the “REIT Properties”) and performed property management and leasing functions for certain related and non-related third parties (the “Non-REIT Properties”). The Company will continue to perform these services for the Non-REIT Properties through the Operating Companies, primarily through WRE. Accordingly, the Company converted WRE to a Taxable REIT Subsidiary (“TRS”) to accommodate serving the Non-REIT Properties since applicable REIT regulations consider the income derived from these services to be “bad” income subject to taxation. The regulations allow for costs incurred by the Company commensurate with the services performed for the Non-REIT Properties to be allocated to a TRS.

During January 2014, the Company acquired Wheeler Development, LLC (“WD”) and converted it to a TRS. The Company began performing development activities for both REIT Properties and Non-REIT Properties during 2015.

The condensed consolidated financial statements included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (the “Form 10-Q”) are unaudited and the results of operations for the interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations to be expected for future periods or the year. However, amounts presented in the condensed consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 20162017 are derived from the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements as of that date, but do not include all of the information and footnotes required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for complete financial statements. The Company prepared the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP for interim financial statements. All per share amounts, common units and shares outstanding and stock-based compensation amounts for all periods presented reflect our one-for-eight reverse stock split (the "Reverse Stock Split"), which was effective March 31, 2017. All material balances and transactions between the consolidated entities of the Company have been eliminated. You should read these condensed consolidated financial statements in conjunction with our 20162017 Annual Report filed on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 20162017 (the “2016“2017 Form 10-K”).

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Investment Properties

    

The Company records investment properties and related intangibles at fair value upon acquisition. Investment properties include both acquired and constructed assets. Improvements and major repairs and maintenance are capitalized when the repair and maintenance substantially extends the useful life, increases capacity or improves the efficiency of the asset. All other repair and maintenance costs are expensed as incurred. The Company capitalizes interest on projects during periods of construction until the projects reach the completion point that corresponds with their intended purpose.

    

The Company allocates the purchase price of acquisitions to the various components of the asset based upon the fair value of each component which may be derived from various observable or unobservable inputs and assumptions. Also, the Company may utilize third party valuation specialists. These components typically include buildings, land and any intangible assets related to out-of-market leases, tenant relationships and in-place leases the Company determines to exist. The Company

Company may utilize third party valuation specialists. These components typically include buildings, land and any intangible assets related to out-of-market leases, tenant relationships and in-place leases the Company determines to exist. The Company determines fair value based on estimated cash flow projections that utilize appropriate discount and capitalization rates and available market information. Estimates of future cash flows are based on a number of factors including the historical operating results, known trends and specific market and economic conditions that may affect the property. Factors considered by management in the analysis of determining the as-if-vacant property value include an estimate of carrying costs during the expected lease-up periods considering market conditions, and costs to execute similar leases. In estimating carrying costs, management includes real estate taxes, insurance and estimates of lost rentals at market rates during the expected lease-up periods, tenant demand and other economic conditions. Management also estimates costs to execute similar leases including leasing commissions, tenant improvements, legal and other related expenses. Intangibles related to out-of-market leases, tenant relationships and in-place lease value are recorded as acquired lease intangibles and are amortized as an adjustment to rental revenue or amortization expense, as appropriate, over the remaining terms of the underlying leases. Premiums or discounts on acquired out-of-market debt are amortized to interest expense over the remaining term of such debt.

    

The Company records depreciation on buildings and improvements utilizing the straight-line method over the estimated useful life of the asset, generally 5 to 40 years. The Company reviews depreciable lives of investment properties periodically and makes adjustments to reflect a shorter economic life, when necessary. Tenant allowances, tenant inducements and tenant improvements are amortized utilizing the straight-line method over the term of the related lease or occupancyoccupancrey term of the tenant, if shorter.

Amounts allocated to buildings are depreciated over the estimated remaining life of the acquired building or related improvements. The Company amortizes amounts allocated to tenant improvements, in-place lease assets and other lease-related intangibles over the remaining life of the underlying leases. The Company also estimates the value of other acquired intangible assets, if any, and amortizes them over the remaining life of the underlying related intangibles.

    

The Company reviews investment properties for impairment on a property-by-property basis whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of investment properties may not be recoverable, but at least annually. These circumstances include, but are not limited to, declines in the property’s cash flows, occupancy and fair market value. The Company measures any impairment of investment property when the estimated undiscounted operating income before depreciation and amortization, plus its residual value, is less than the carrying value of the property. Estimated undiscounted operating income before depreciation and amortization includes various level 3 fair value assumptions including renewal and renegotiations of current leases, estimates of operating costs and fluctuating market conditions. The renewal and renegotiations of leases in some cases must be approved by additional third parties outside the control of the Company and the tenant. If such renewed or renegotiated leases are approved at amounts below correct estimates, then impairment adjustments may be necessary in the future. To the extent impairment has occurred, the Company charges to income the excess of the carrying value of the property over its estimated fair value. The Company estimates fair value using unobservable data such as operating income, estimated capitalization rates, or multiples, leasing prospects and local market information. The Company may decide to sell properties that are held for use and the sale prices of these properties may differ from their carrying values. The Company did not record any impairment adjustments to its properties during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017March 31, 2018 and 2016.2017.

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash

    

The Company considers all highly liquid investments purchased with an original maturity of 90 days or less to be cash and cash equivalents. Cash equivalents are carried at cost, which approximates fair value. Cash equivalents consist primarily of bank operating accounts and money markets. Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk include its cash and cash equivalents and its trade accounts receivable. The Company places its cash and cash equivalents with institutions of high credit quality.

    

The Company places its cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash on deposit with financial institutions in the United States, which are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Company (“FDIC”) up to $250 thousand. The Company's credit loss in the event of failure of these financial institutions is represented by the difference between the FDIC limit and the total amounts on deposit. Management monitors the financial institutions credit worthiness in conjunction with balances on deposit to minimize risk.

Tenant receivables include base rents, tenant reimbursements and receivables attributable to recording rents on a straight-line basis. The Company determines an allowance for the uncollectible portion of accrued rents and accounts receivable based upon customer credit-worthiness (including expected recovery of a claim with respect to any tenants in bankruptcy), historical bad debt levels, and current economic trends. The Company considers a receivable past due once it becomes delinquent per the terms of the lease. The Company’s standard lease form considers a rent charge past due after five days. A past due receivable triggers certain events such as notices, fees and other allowable and required actions per the lease. As of September 30, 2017March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2016,2017, the Company’s allowance for uncollectible accounts totaled $703$723 thousand and $691$705 thousand, respectively. During the three and nine months ended September 30,March 31, 2018 and 2017, the Company recorded bad debt expenses in the amount of $23$98 thousand and $443$252 thousand, respectively, related to tenant receivables that were specifically identified as potentially uncollectible based on an assessment of the tenant’s credit-worthiness. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016, the Company recorded bad debt expenses in the amount of $31 thousandMarch 31, 2018 and $196 thousand, respectively. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017, and 2016, the Company did not realize any recoveries related to tenant receivables previously written off.

    

The Company’s deferred costs and other assets consist primarily of leasing commissions, leases in place, capitalized legal and marketing costs, and tenant relationship and ground lease sandwich interest intangibles associated with acquisitions. The Company’s lease origination costs consist primarily of the portion of property acquisitions allocated to lease originations and commissions paid in connection with lease originations.

The Company has elected to be taxed as a REIT under Sections 856 through 860 of the Internal Revenue Code and applicable Treasury regulations relating to REIT qualification. In order to maintain this REIT status, the regulations require the Company to distribute at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders and meet certain other asset and income tests, as well as other requirements. The TRS' have accrued $62$98 thousand and $107$15 thousand for 2017 and 2016 federal and state income taxes as of September 30, 2017March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2016.2017. If the Company fails to qualify as a REIT, it will be subject to tax at regular corporate rates for the years in which it fails to qualify. If the Company loses its REIT status, it could not elect to be taxed as a REIT for five years unless the Company’s failure to qualify was due to a reasonable cause and certain other conditions were satisfied.

Taxable REIT Subsidiary Cost Allocation

The Company’s overall philosophy regarding cost allocation centers around the premise that the Trust exists to acquire, lease and manage properties for the benefit of its investors. Accordingly, a majority of the Company’s operations occur at the property level. Each property must carry its own weight by absorbing the costs associated with generating its revenues. Additionally, leases generally allow the Company to pass through to the tenant most of the costs involved in operating the property, including, but not limited to, the direct costs associated with owning and maintaining the property (landscaping, repairs and maintenance, taxes, insurance, etc.), property management and certain administrative costs.

Service vendors bill the majority of the direct costs of operating the properties directly to the REIT Properties and Non-REIT Properties and each property pays them accordingly. The Non-REIT Properties pay WRE property management and/or asset management fees of 3% and 2% of collected revenues, respectively. The Non-REIT Properties also pay WRE leasing commissions based on the total contractual revenues to be generated under the new/renewed lease agreement (6% for new leases and 3% for renewals). Non-REIT properties pay development fees of 5% of hard costs.

Costs incurred to manage, lease and administer the Non-REIT Properties are allocated to the TRS. These costs include compensation and benefits, property management, leasing and other corporate, general and administrative expenses associated with generating the TRS' revenues.

    

Financial Instruments

    

The carrying amount of financial instruments included in assets and liabilities approximates fair market value due to their immediate or short-term maturity.

Use of Estimates

The Company has made estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and revenues and expenses during the reported periods. The Company’s actual results could differ from these estimates.

Advertising Costs

    

The Company expenses advertising and promotion costs as incurred. The Company incurred advertising and promotion costs of $52$43 thousand and $195$60 thousand for the three and nine months ended September 30,March 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The Company incurred advertising and promotion costs of $23 thousand and $176 thousand for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016, respectively.

Assets Held For Sale and Discontinued Operations

The Company records assets as held for sale when management has committed to a plan to sell the assets, actively seeks a buyer for the assets, and the consummation of the sale is considered probable and is expected within one year.

Assets held for sale are presented as discontinued operations in all periods presented if the disposition represents a strategic shift that has, or will have, a major effect on the Company's financial position or results of operations. This includes the net gain (or loss) upon disposal of property held for sale, the property's operating results, depreciation and interest expense.

Corporate General and Administrative Expense

    

A detail for the "Corporate General & Administrative" line item from the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations is presented below (in thousands):

An allocation of professional fees, compensation and benefits, corporate administration and travel is included in Non-REIT management and leasing services on the statements of operations, which can vary period to period depending on the relative operational fluctuations of these respective services.

Noncontrolling interests is the portion of equity in the Operating Partnership not attributable to the Trust. The ownership interests not held by the parentCompany are considered noncontrolling interests. Accordingly, noncontrolling interests have been reported in equity on the condensed consolidated balance sheets but separate from the Company’s equity. On the condensed consolidated statements of operations, the subsidiaries are reported at the consolidated amount, including both the amount attributable to the Company and noncontrolling interests. Condensed consolidated statement of equity includes

beginning balances, activity for the period and ending balances for shareholders’ equity, noncontrolling interests and total equity.

    

The noncontrolling interest of the Operating Partnership common unit holders is calculated by multiplying the noncontrolling interest ownership percentage at the balance sheet date by the Operating Partnership’s net assets (total assets less total liabilities). The noncontrolling interest percentage is calculated at any point in time by dividing the number of units not owned by the Company by the total number of units outstanding. The noncontrolling interest ownership percentage will change as additional units are issued or as units are exchanged for the Company’s common stock $0.01 par value per share (“Common Stock”). In accordance with GAAP, any changes in the value from period to period are charged to additional paid-in capital.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, "Leases (Topic 842)." ASU 2016-02 is intended to improve financial reporting about leasing transactions. The ASU affects all companies and other organizations that lease assets such as real estate, airplanes, and manufacturing equipment. The ASU will require organizations that lease assets referred to as “Lessees” to recognize on the balance sheet the assets and liabilities for the rights and obligations created by those leases. An organization is to provide disclosures designed to enable users of financial statements to understand the amount, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. These disclosures include qualitative and quantitative requirements concerning additional information about the amounts recorded in the financial statements. Under the new guidance, a lessee will be required to recognize assets and liabilities for leases with lease terms of more than 12 months. Consistent with current GAAP, the recognition, measurement, and presentation of expenses and cash flows arising from a lease by a lessee primarily will depend on its classification as a finance or operating lease. However, unlike current GAAP which requires only capital leases to be recognized on the balance sheet the new ASU will require both types of leases (i.e. operating and capital) to be recognized

on the balance sheet. The FASB lessee accounting model will continue to account for both types of leases. The capital lease will be accounted for in substantially the same manner as capital leases are accounted for under existing GAAP. The operating lease will be accounted for in a manner similar to operating leases under existing GAAP, except that lessees will recognize a lease liability and a lease asset for all of those leases.

    

The leasing standard will be effective for calendar year-end public companies beginning after December 15, 2018.  Public companies will be required to adopt the new leasing standard for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018. Early adoption will be permitted for all companies and organizations upon issuance of the standard. For calendar year-end public companies, this means an adoption date of January 1, 2019 and retrospective application to previously issued annual and interim financial statements for 2018 and 2017. The accounting for leases under which we are the lessor remains largely unchanged. Lessees with a large portfolio of leases are likely to see a significant increase in balance sheet assets and liabilities. While we are currently assessing the impact of the standard on our financial position and results of operations we expect the primary impact to be on those ground leases which we are the lessor. The new standard will result in the recording of right of use assets and lease obligations. See Note 9 for the Company’s current lease commitments. The Company continues to evaluate the impact of ASU 2016-02 on its financial statements.

In February 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-05, “Other Income-Gains and Losses from the Derecognition of Nonfinancial Assets (Subtopic 610-20):  Clarifying the Scope of Asset Derecognition Guidance and Accounting for Partial Sales of Nonfinancial Assets.” This amendment provides guidance for partial sales of nonfinancial assets. This ASU is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption is permitted. The standard is to be applied retrospectively or modified retrospectively. The Company is evaluatingadopted this ASU as of January 1, 2018. The adoption did not have a material impact on the impact that ASU 2017-05 on its financial statements.position or results of operations.

In May 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-09, “Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Scope of Modification Accounting.” This updates clarifies when modification accounting guidance in Topic 718 should be applied to a change in terms or conditions of a share-based payment award. This ASU is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2017 with early adoption permitted. The new standard is to be applied prospectively to an award modified on or after the adoption date. The Company doesadopted this ASU as of January 1, 2018. The adoption did not expect the update to have a material impact on itsthe financial position or results of operations.

Other accounting standards that have been issued or proposed by the FASB or other standard-setting bodies are not currently applicable to the Company or are not expected to have a significant impact on the Company’s financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

3. Investment Properties

4. Notes Receivable

In February 2018, the $1.69 million loan payable atCompany’s management and Board of Directors committed to a costplan to sell the seven undeveloped land parcels (the “Land Parcels”) as part of $223 thousand.Company’s strategic initiative. Accordingly, the Land Parcels have been classified as held for sale.

6. Loans Payable